Category

Shinseiki Evangelion

From Sega Retro

Neon Genesis Evangelion (japanese: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン, rōmanji: Shin Seiki Evangerion, literally:. New Century Evangelion) is a franchise which is best known as the critically praised 26 episode anime written and directed by Hideaki Anno, of Gainax studios.

Sega was one of the producers of these 26 episodes. The brand is referenced twice within the universe. It's unclear if it's a case of product placement made by Gainax alone as either homage or gratitude or for some other reason, or if it was made compulsory by Sega. These references are almost negligible and there are other brands that got snuck in, such as Coca-Cola and Yebisu beer, which were not involved in the show in any way. Being spelled SECA and the games seen not having a distintive counterpart in real life might be another hint of a voluntary inclusion.

In episode 6, Kensuke and Toji play videogames shortly after the start of operation Yashima, a Saturn console and first generation controllers are seen momentarily.

In episode 23, Asuka spends time in Hikari's house, playing videogames as escapism after being mind-raped by an angel and this is the clearest reference, with several games (Puyo Puyo, Winning Fighter), a Saturn and a second generation controller, plus a Sega TV.

After the series was over, two subsequent movies were made, because the author was dissatisfied with the final work due mostly to the noticeable gradual decrease in animation quality and network censorship. Sega also sponsored these two movies.

Sega appears in the credits of Death & Rebirth, along with Gainax, Production I.G and Movic.

Most noticeable, at the beginning of The End of Evangelion and after the flash card titles, there is an eye-catch sequence featuring all of the producers of the movies: Gainax, Sega (the third in the sequence), Production I.G, TV Tokyo, Toei Animation, Kadokawa Shoten and Movic. The animation is similar to what appeared in the games at the time.

Hideaki Anno refused to make an old-fashioned robot show and the EVAs were designed in such a way that they would be difficult to transpose into a toy. Indeed, when the proposal was shown to an unknown toy company, they were deemed difficult to manufacture and that they would never sell. Despite this, Sega then acquired licensing rights to toys and several games were made exclusive to the Sega Saturn.

It is unclear if Sega has any sponsoring position in the Rebuild of Evangelion animated films. They seem to retain (or have renewed) some of the toy rights at the very least, as several figurines exclsuive of Rebuild exist (for example, Asuka labelled as Shikinami instead of Soryu and exclusive character Mari Makinami).